Day 7 – Thursday 12 July 2007 Shardlow to Fradley 25 miles 10:15pm - 8:50pm
A few boats passed earlier in the morning, but at about 10am one passed going our way. At 10:15am we set off, and just nicely caught up with them at the lock. We shared the next couple of locks with them, and then didn't see them at Swakestone where another boater coming down opened the gates for us. I didn't bother with ropes, and had no problem holding our 50ft boat in the lock. At Stenson we had to wait quite awhile for a couple of boats to finish going through the lock, and another to come down. We did the lock again without ropes, and opened all the paddles in fairly quick succession. I held the boat in the back of the lock, and only bumped the bow because I was too busy filming! A boat arrived at the top just as the lock was nearly ready, and I thought that the women on the boat was going to step off and come to help, but they saw me in the lock and stayed on the boat. I asked Dad to start to close the gate, just to make the point, but he wouldn't. As I pulled away from the lock the other top gate blow open, so it just serves them right! At Willington we caught up a slow boat, but thankfully pulled into the sanitary station while another was reversing back to a mooring opposite, then just as I approached the bridge another narrowboat came the other way, with the BW launch following it. We caught up to another boat just as we neared Dallow Lane, the first narrow lock. They waited at the boat while Dad went up and helped another boat up in front of them. A first for a hire boat, they actually went up to the lock gates while it was emptying, rather than waiting for the gates to open. I followed him upto the gates, and held it there with the engine in tickover to help with the lock. Behind were some friends? of theirs who actually started to lift the bottom paddles before we were through the lock. They all pulled in at Burton. We had a mixed bag with the other locks, and we were above Alrewas by 7:20pm, where we stopped for 30 minutes for tea. A fibre glass boat that had been following us up the last few locks were trying to make for Fradley for the night, but that didn't even bother to slow down for moored boats, and pulled us about on our moorings. They were long gone when we reached the locks, and we had a clear run up all the locks, even having the top one ready for us. Unfortunately the boat had pulled into the sanitary station there, and I thought we would have to moor alongside another boat while I put our rubbish off. Thankfully there was plenty of space, and Dad had already walked down, so I just passed him the bag I had ready on the back deck. We moored just before the first arched bridge on the Coventry, or is it the Birmingham and Fazely. We wanted to fill the diesel tank, but Barton Turns was closed before we reached there (47p), I wished we stopped at Burton as they were doing it at the same price (for 100+ litres). A 5 gallon tank was put in the tank, which should happily get us to Streethay Wharf. -- Michael Askin http://shoestring_DOT_zapto_DOT_org/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/canals-list/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/canals-list/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
